End of the world -- Fiction; Epidemics -- Fiction; Science fiction; Twenty-first century -- Fiction
This man had between two and three hundred persons enlisted under his
banners. More than half of them were women; there were about fifty
children of all ages; and not more than eighty men. They were mostly
drawn from that which, when such distinctions existed, was denominated
the lower rank of society. The exceptions consisted of a few high-born
females, who, panic-struck, and tamed by sorrow, had joined him. Among
these was one, young, lovely, and enthusiastic, whose very goodness
made her a more easy victim. I have mentioned her before: Juliet, the
youngest daughter, and now sole relic of the ducal house of L—-. There
are some beings, whom fate seems to select on whom to pour, in
unmeasured portion, the vials of her wrath, and whom she bathes even to
the lips in misery. Such a one was the ill-starred Juliet. She had lost
her indulgent parents, her brothers and sisters, companions of her
youth; in one fell swoop they had been carried off from her. Yet she
had again dared to call herself happy; united to her admirer, to him
who possessed and filled her whole heart, she yielded to the lethean
powers of love, and knew and felt only his life and presence. At the
very time when with keen delight she welcomed the tokens of maternity,
this sole prop of her life failed, her husband died of the plague. For
a time she had been lulled in insanity; the birth of her child restored
her to the cruel reality of things, but gave her at the same time an
object for whom to preserve at once life and reason. Every friend and
relative had died off, and she was reduced to solitude and penury; deep
melancholy and angry impatience distorted her judgment, so that she
could not persuade herself to disclose her distress to us. When she
heard of the plan of universal emigration, she resolved to remain
behind with her child, and alone in wide England to live or die, as
fate might decree, beside the grave of her beloved. She had hidden
herself in one of the many empty habitations of London; it was she who
rescued my Idris on the fatal twentieth of November, though my
immediate danger, and the subsequent illness of Idris, caused us to
forget our hapless friend. This circumstance had however brought her
again in contact with her fellow-creatures; a slight illness of her
infant, proved to her that she was still bound to humanity by an
indestructible tie; to preserve this little creature’s life became the
object of her being, and she joined the first division of migrants who
went over to Paris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account